The art form known as “mixing” involves using electronic devices to modify the digital content of one or more digital sources to produce a derivative work of art called the “mix”. The digital sources may be, for example, digital audio, digital video, or digital photographic works that are mixed in any combination. The mix can be recorded but if the source content is copyrighted, distribution of the mix to consumers requires that permission be obtained from the source copyright holder(s). This limits the ability of mix artists to share or monetize their work.
For example, the musical art form known as “mixing” involves using electronic devices to modify one or more source audio recordings to produce a new music work called the mix. Similarly, the acoustical characteristics of the digital content of one or more source audio recordings can be used to produce a soundtrack (the mix) for a video or a motion picture.
The visual art form known as “mashups” involves using electronic devices to modify the digital content of one or more source video recordings to produce a new work of art called the “mashup” or a “video mix”. The video mix can be recorded, but if the source video recording(s) is copyrighted, or a source audio recording incorporated into the video is copyrighted, the distribution of the video mix requires permission of the source copyright holder(s).
Since any mix may include portions of one or more copyrighted sources, it is generally difficult and expensive to obtain the copyright permissions required to distribute the mix. This is particularly egregious to an artist who has no means of gauging the commercial value of their mix before it is distributed. Methods of creating mix instruction files that recreate mixes directly from copies of the sources have therefore been invented, as described for example in International application publication number WO 2008/004791 A1 published on Jan. 10, 2008. The mix instruction file can be distributed without copyright violation since it uses the original sources to recreate the mix. However, mix instruction creation equipment has limitations and can be expensive.
There therefore exists a need for a simple method of permitting mix artists to legally distribute their mixes without the requirement of acquiring mix instruction creation equipment.